The Big Ohio Vote

Nov 7, 2011

RUSH: I told you about this couple weeks ago. I’ve been keeping this on the outer edges. Big election tomorrow on Issue 2 and Issue 3 in Ohio. We got a health care ballot initiative, I think it’s Issue 3. That’s a biggie, by the way. Issue 3, the people of Ohio are gonna vote tomorrow on exempting themselves from the mandate to buy health insurance, and if they don’t exempt themselves, that ain’t gonna help at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, these judges, they follow the elections and they follow public opinion polls. They’d never admit it, but they do. And if the swing state people of Ohio say, “Hey, bring the mandate on. We’ll be glad to be forced to buy insurance by the Feds,” then the Supreme Court could say, “Hey, you know what, the path of least resistance here is just to say Obamacare is cool as is.”

But if the people of Ohio say, “To hell with that mandate, we don’t want any part of it. We don’t want to be forced to buy health insurance, vote it down,” that’s preferable, but there’s another issue, Issue 2. And listen to how the LA Times reports this. “An aggressive Republican drive to weaken the labor rights of government workers appears to have crested, at least in Ohio, where voters are expected to throw out a far-reaching anti-union law this week. The referendum over collective bargaining for public employees, potentially the most important contest in off-year elections around the nation, is being closely watched for clues about shifting voter trends in a state expected to play its usual outsized role in next year’s presidential contest.

“Barely seven months ago, newly elected Gov. John Kasich joined other Republican governors, including Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, in defying angry street demonstrations to push through a measure designed to curb the power of public-employee unions….the focus of both sides in the referendum fight, touts his blue-collar roots as the son of a postman. But he warns that a victory by organized labor would undercut his efforts to hold the line on government spending and rebuild the state’s economy.” This is Wisconsin redone, and what it boils down to, folks, is people in Ohio are gonna be voting whether or not to give away the store to public employees. It’s a vote to keep public sector workers better paid than the taxpayers who pay them. Just like it was in Wisconsin.

It’s a giant money laundering scheme. The more public sector workers there are, the more public sector dues there are. Those dues are what fund Democrat Party campaigns. And the more those state workers earn, the higher the dues, i.e., the greater the amount that ends up back at the Democrat Party. Now, in Wisconsin it was voted down. You remember, members of the state legislature fled the state trying to avoid voting on it. Governor Walker prevailed there, Kasich trying to duplicate. There’s a polling outfit called Public Policy Polling, and they say that it’s over, that big union and its money is gonna win handily, that there’s no way, and I don’t believe that for a second, because I know that polling is used to shape public opinion, not reflect it.

“The arguments by Kasich, whose popularity has fallen sharply since his election a year ago, appear to have swayed few voters. Public and private polling indicates that Ohioans, by a substantial margin, want to overturn the new law.” Which means, if this is true, that people in Ohio want to rape themselves. People in Ohio want to pay higher taxes to pay higher salaries to state workers, state workers who will earn twice what their private sector counterparts do — this is what the polling is telling us. Pensions, too, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you private sector workers in Ohio, the polling data says that you want to pay state workers twice what you earn and pay their lifetime pensions. That’s what the polling is telling us, that Big Labor has won the day. This is hardly even a contest, Kasich, everybody hates him, this issue is going down the tubes, there’s no prayer. That’s what we’re being led to believe.

Those of us that don’t live in Ohio are being told that you who do — let me put it another way. You live in Ohio and you make $45,000 a year, you are in favor of paying taxes sufficiently high enough to pay a public sector worker $90,000 a year plus a lifetime pension. That’s what the polling says you want to do. Does that sound right? No, no. Does it sound like it makes sense? I mean if you put the proposition to the residents of Ohio that way: Dear Mr. Ohioan, you earn $50,000 a year, you’re gonna vote tomorrow to pay the union workers in your state a hundred thousand dollars a year, and you’re going to pay a lifetime pension, which means you are signing on to your own taxes being raised however much is necessary to make all that happen. That’s what you want. And not only are you voting for your taxes to go up, you’re voting for your kids who may not even be beyond sperm stage yet the same thing.

That’s what the Public Policy Polling is telling us, that you in Ohio want yourself or your unborn kids to face never-ending tax increases to pay state public employees twice what you earn plus pensions after they retire, and they can retire after 20 years. I’m not sure exactly how quickly they can retire, but that’s what was on the ballot in Wisconsin. It went down the tubes, and that’s what Public Policy Polling is telling us is going on in Ohio. Now, the Los Angeles Times article doesn’t cite any specific poll. They just say polling. There is another story out there that cites Public Policy Polling. They’re in there.

And from Gallup, the headline here says it all. “Democrats More Liberal, Less White Than in 2008.” The party generally looks demographically similar to 2008. Well, how can it look similar if it’s more liberal and less white? “In many respects, the demographic profile of Democrats nationwide is similar to what it was in 2008, although Democrats have become somewhat less white –” How did that happen? (interruption) Well, no, but I mean if you become less white, does somebody paint you? What happens? Not spending as much time outside in the sun? Democrats have become somewhat less white. How does that happen? I know Michael Jackson became less black. He did it with bleach, right? All right, so you must be spending more time in the sun to become less white. All right. So must be a zero-sum game.

But anyway, “Democrats have become somewhat less white and more liberal than the party that nominated Barack Obama as its presidential candidate that year. As a group, Democrats are more likely than average to be women and nonwhite, less likely to be religious or married, much less likely to be conservative, and much more likely to be liberal than the U.S. population as a whole.” In other words, they’re totally outside the norm. The nation’s Democrats are totally outside the norm. But you see I’m sort of saddened by this. I thought Obama was gonna make all this race stuff go away. It’s not happened, has it?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So Ohio is gonna vote tomorrow on whether or not they want to become Greece.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Sam in Columbus, Ohio, welcome to the program, sir.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, it is an absolute honor to speak with you. Thank you so much for taking my call.

RUSH: It’s a pleasure, sir. Thank you very much.

CALLER: My comments are regarding Issue 2 in Ohio.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: Well, they have bombarded us for three weeks or longer with basically threats with police and fire department response time. If we have an emergency, somebody breaks into our house, you know, we’re not gonna get the help.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: We have been hearing this constantly.

RUSH: Yep. That’s how they do it. If you don’t pass this thing, then the cops are not gonna be on the beat, the firemen aren’t gonna put out your fires, and your rates will go up, all kinds of horrible, rotten things are gonna happen to you.

CALLER: That’s exactly right. And it’s just the last three days we’ve finally seen some “yes” signs and some ads that are, you know, voting yes, and they’re all positive. It’s amazing how that works.

RUSH: Well, the opponents of this thing, they can’t afford for the truth of what’s on the ballot to be discussed. This thing will go down in flames. That’s why they portray this as, “If you support Issue 2 you’re saying good-bye to cops. If you support Issue 2 you’re saying good by to firemen.” It’s not the case at all. Ohio, I’m just gonna tell you, I don’t live there but I’ve loved it there when I’ve been. I’m just gonna tell you straight out what Issue 2 is, as simply as I can. Whatever you earn, let’s use the average, let’s say you earn $50,000 a year. What you are voting on tomorrow is paying public sector workers twice what you make. And your kids and you will be facing higher state taxes in order to pay the public union state employees twice what you earn, plus you’re going to have to pay for their pensions in their retirement. That’s what’s on the ballot.

What is not on the ballot is cops not responding, firemen not responding. What’s not on the ballot is cops getting fired or policemen being fired or first responders being let go. That’s not on the ballot. The collective bargaining issue is also on the ballot. And don’t forget, even noted leftists of the past, FDR said that collective bargaining for public employees is unacceptable because you’re bargaining against your own people. You know, the evil enemy in the state of Ohio is not fat cat CEOs. That’s not who the unions are negotiating against. The unions in Ohio are negotiating against the taxpayers. Issue 2 is about survival. If it goes down, Ohio goes down. It’s unsustainable. You simply cannot have the private sector population paying union state workers twice what they earn.

How many cops have been fired in Wisconsin? How many first responders have been fired in Wisconsin? How many firefighters have been let go in Wisconsin? FDR was against collective bargaining for public sector workers because they’re bargaining against your fellow citizen. You’re bargaining against your neighbor. Big Labor in Ohio is totally misrepresenting this. Of course they would love to earn twice what the private sector makes. They don’t care who’s paying it. It’s no more complicated than that. We’re not just talking cops and firefighters. We’re talking teachers and bureaucrats at the DMV, all of these union workers, they’re gonna make up to twice what you make and your taxes are going to pay that, plus their retirement. That’s what’s on the ballot and it’s unsustainable. Issue 2 is about sustainability, survivability. Sam, are you still on the phone?

CALLER: Yes, I am.

RUSH: Have there been any ads about rapes going up in Ohio if Issue 2 goes down?

CALLER: You know, I don’t want to say a hundred percent for sure, but definitely like break-ins and there probably were a couple early on that were talked about —

RUSH: Well, I wouldn’t doubt it because the vice president, Joe Bite Me is out there, rapes are gonna go up if we don’t support the president’s jobs bill. So if they’re trying to tell you that the cops are not gonna be answering complaints, that means rapes might be going up in Ohio. That’s how the left sells this stuff. Sam, I appreciate call.